My wicked-smaht friend Melissa just reviewed a book on her literary site that I’ve long been meaning to review here. The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope is a must-read for people interested in finance, upper-class society, and the way history constantly rhymes with the present.

It may be no surprise to you that classic financial bubble behavior, with greed and corner-cutting overwhelming character and personal judgment, has long been a feature of financial and political elites. But Trollope’s story wraps that message in this brilliant satire of upper class England better than anyone else could.

“The thing that probably sustained me most as I made my way through Anthony Trollope’s 762-page opus The Way We Live Now was that it really is pretty much about the way we live now, in 2013, even though it was written in 1875. That’s partly because the novel was written in satirical response to financial scandals of the 1870s, and we’ve just lived through a similarly worldwide financial meltdown with some of the same root causes: unchecked greed and irresponsible speculation.”

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I founded Bankers Anonymous because, as a recovering banker, I believe that the gap between the financial world as I know it and the public discourse about finance is more than just a problem for a family trying to balance their checkbook, or politicians trying to score points over next year’s budget – it is a weakness of our civil society. For reals. It’s also really fun for me.